Apple Counting Activities for Preschoolers
Looking for some apple counting games for preschoolers to add to your fall preschool activities? Try this Collecting Apples board game printable. It’s a great addition to your apples and pumpkins preschool theme.
This printable apple counting game teaches more than just counting! It also teaches subitizing, one to one correspondence, and even number identification.
An apples preschool theme is a classic in the fall. Why not add this apples board game to your preschool math activities?!
But this board game doesn’t just teach math. It also teaches reading progression, loads of social skills, and like all my other free printables, there are multiple ways to use this game in your preschool apple lesson plans.
It pairs wonderfully with my Apples & Pumpkins Preschool Centers, and is the same high quality example of my popular Daily Lessons in Preschool Counting unit.
Apple Counting Game Printable
This activity is the perfect combination of hands-on math and easy printable activities. It’s one of my favorite apple activities for preschool and kindergarten teachers love it too!
It’s an awesome addition to our Apple Lesson Plans for Preschoolers.
What’s Included
This freebie includes a single page apple board game that is in full color. This makes it cost effective for printing, but keep reading for all the different ways to use this printable to teach math.
Additional Materials
- die
- red and green buttons (for apples)
The Set Up
Just set out the game with the die and a small bowl of “apples”. We used buttons, but small pebbles, pom poms, or apple mini erasers would work just as well.
Here are some apple manipulatives you might like to go along with this preschool game.
How to Play Collecting Apples Board Game
The Collecting Apples game can be played a few different ways. I’ll show you the traditional way, and then at the end of the post show you how to modify the game. This way, you get multiple preschool apple theme math activities in one printable!
Collecting Apple Board Game – The Original Play
The first version of the game requires that an apple manipulative be placed on every game board space. The players take turns rolling the die and removing the corresponding number of buttons, thus “collecting apples”.
The idea is that each button is an apple that needs to be picked up along that path and saved for the wheelbarrow. This is the concept that traditional path games and grid games in math follow. It’s similar to our Space Grid Game and our Valentine’s Grid Games, too.
Collecting Apple Board Game – Two Player Reverse
Once all the apples have been collected, preschoolers can practice counting even more by setting up the game for someone else. This is a good option if the game is left out at your math centers.
Each player will select a color of apples. Either green or red. (These are the colors of buttons I chose to use, but really it doesn’t matter). Roll and die and add the corresponding number of apples to the game board, this filling in all the spaces.
It’s easiest for each preschooler to only add their own color of buttons because if a preschooler hasn’t mastered counting or one to one correspondence, then it will be easier to count the apples.
In the photo above, you can clearly see that the first child rolled four, the second roll was a two, and the third roll was a six.
Collecting Apple Board Game – Backwards Adding On
This version is the most difficult, and best saved for when an adult can play, or best saves for kindergarten students. Once you get the hang of this version, it’s a great apple activity for kindergarten.
Start by filling the game board like in the original version of play, with a button on each game space.
Then, players will take turns rolling the die and removing the corresponding number of buttons, working backwards from the wheelbarrow to the top of the board.
The next player rolls and removes the next set of buttons.
Each set of removed buttons should be added to the same collection pile. And this is where the additional challenge comes in.
The player counts to entire collection pile each time they add to it!
So then the players must consider how many apples will be added to the collection pile if they add the five that was just rolled.
10+5=15.
The play continues until all the apples have been removed from the game board.
Apple Books for Preschoolers
Having the right apple theme picture books can take your learning activities to the next level. Picture books help preschoolers make preschool themes more visual. Here are some of our favorite apple theme books for preschoolers.
Apple Counting Activities for Preschoolers
When it’s apple picking season, you can never have enough apple themed preschool activities. Here are some of our favorite apple counting activities for preschoolers.
- Apple Counting Cards
- Apple Tree Clothes Pin Counting
- Apple Drop Counting Game
- Apple Fingerprint Counting Worksheet
- Hands-on Apple Activities
- Farmer Brown Has 5 Red Apple Song
Get Your Apples Board Game Here
This you want to add this apple game to your other one to one correspondence activities? Think it will complete your apple theme preschool curriculum and lesson plans? Fill out the form below and the pdf will be sent to your email.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.